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Welcome to Tech News Today, I'm Mike Elgan - I'm Jason Howell.

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On Tech News Today, we explore the most important stories of the day in conversation with the world's leading journalists.

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Our guest co-anchor today is David Spark, a tech journalist and founder of Spark Media Solutions, a brand journalism company.

Apple CFO and senior vice president Peter Oppenheimer will retire at the end of September after 18 years with the company. He’ll be replaced by Luca Maestri, who is currently Apple's vice president of finance and corporate controller.

Q: Luca Maestri joined Apple in 2013 after 25 years of experience. He was the CFO for the Nokia Siemens Network and Xerox. Sounds like working for a consumer electronics company is new to Maestri -- what sort of challenges does he face?

Steve KovachSenior tech editor, Business Insider @stevekovach

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* Oppenheimer CFO for 10 years.

* Luca Maestri who is currently Apple's vice president of finance and corporate controller.

* Oppenheimer is best known to followers of Apple as the primary voice on Apple's earning calls

* Reporting to Apple CEO, Tim Cook.

* PR = “Peter has served as our CFO for the past decade as Apple’s annual revenue grew from $8 billion to $171 billion and our global footprint expanded dramatically.

* Peter Oppenheimer = “I love Apple and the people I have had the privilege to work with and after 18 years here, it is time for me to take time for myself and my family.” Travel. Pilot’s license.

Facebook is in talks to acquire a drone maker called Titan Aerospace. The company makes drones that can fly on solar power for five years without landing. Facebook wants to build 11,000 of the drones to bring Internet connectivity to parts of the world that do not have it, according to an article in TechCrunch, which broke the story. The price of the acquisition is said to be $60 million.

* Solara 50 and 60 models can be launched at night using power from internal battery packs, then when the sun rises, they can store enough energy to reach 12 miles above sea level where they can remain for five years without needing to land or refuel.

* Internet.org

* Titan Aerospace = privately held venture with R&D in New Mexico

* U.S. Class A airspace ends at 60,000 feet stateside, and above that the U.S. doesn’t regulate. That means the only issue = initial climb. In other parts of the world laws vary. But in the developing markets Internet.org is focused on, it’s likely they’re not as far along in regulating such new technology

* The Internet.org project competes with Google’s own R&D effort called “Project Loon”

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More Information

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CONVERSATION 4

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Sony announced today that its PlayStation 4 console has sold more than 6 million units worldwide.

Q: What does this number represent? Is it sold to consumers or to stores?

Q: How is Sony doing on the sale of actual games and PS Plus memberships?

Q: Is price a factor here? Do people buy PS 4 because it’s cheaper than Xbox One?

Sebastian AnthonySenior Editor at Ziff Davis @mrseb

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* In January, Microsoft said it shipped — not sold — 3.9 million Xbox One devices worldwide following its Nov. 29 launch.

* Sony’s lead is also apparent in the U.S. Though Microsoft claimed victory for U.S. console sales in December, PS4 sales were nearly double that of the Xbox One in January.

* PS4 is $100 cheaper than the Xbox One

* Sales in Japan of 370,000 units since its Japan debut on Feb. 22.

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extremetech.com * @mrseb

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The US Justice Department is siding with TV broadcasters and against Aereo. In a Supreme Court filing yesterday, the Justice Department said Aereo steps on TV copyrights, and asked the court to overturn a lower-court ruling that found Aereo to be legal. Aereo uses tiny antennas -- one per customer -- to capture TV from the airwaves and stream it to viewers over the Internet. Aereo says they’re merely renting TV antennas. TV broadcasters and now the Justice Department say they’re selling content without paying the content creators or distributors.

* Subscribers pay up to $12 a month for the service, which allows them to record shows remotely and store them online for playback on laptops and mobile devices.

* Last week, the big four networks warned that an Aereo victory in the case would essentially destroy the broadcast industry’s business model

* Aereo’s service just launched in Austin, Texas, and is now available in 10 metro areas.

* The company has plans to expand to more than a dozen more areas soon.

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Twitter accidentally sent an email to many users today telling them their Twitter passwords had been reset. It all started Monday evening when Twitter locked some users out of their accounts. They then sent an email to those users saying “Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter. We've reset your password to prevent accessing your account." Except there were no hackers. Just an internal code error.

Kenny White called and left a voicemail about our story yesterday that Pizza Hut is testing restaurant tables with touch-screens for ordering pizza. Kenny points out that these are great, unless people are visually impaired. He says that accessibility is far too often overlooked in the creation of new interfaces.

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IN OTHER NEWS

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Today is Fat Tuesday, otherwise known as Mardi Gras. In New Orleans, revelers will be guzzling booze and hunting for a place to relieve themselves. Fortunately, help is on the way. A new company models itself after the AirBnB apartment-finding service is helping people find a place to go to the bathroom during Mardi Gras. The going rate is between a dollar and three dollars per “session.” And the name of this toilet-sharing service? What else? Air PnP!